changes in the entire China and the possible driving factors
provides a crucial basis for continuous investigation and pro-
tection of the dynamic lake systems.
Conclusions
In this study, we conducted a national-scale investigation
of the current distribution and long-term evolution patterns
of all the lakes across the entire China from 1985 to 2015.
Furthermore, we also explored the relationships between the
lake changes and possible climatic/anthropogenic factors.
Our results indicate that dramatic changes have occurred to
the lakes in China over the past three decades, involving a
significant number of disappeared lakes in Northeast China
but also newly emergent lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. Specifi-
cally, the
TPL
and Xinjiang have experienced extensive lake
expansion over the last few decades, due to increased precipi-
tation and glacier/snow melting under climate warming. In
contrast, a marked decreasing trend in lake area has occurred
in the eastern and northeastern China and Inner Mongolia,
which is mainly associated with intensive human activities
(e.g., increasing population, excessive irrigation, overgrazing,
coal mining, urban expansion, and water projects construc-
tion). The comprehensive documentation of the dramatic
lake changes in the whole of China and the possible driving
factors may serve as baseline data to understand the dynamic
lake system of China in a changing climate.
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China under Grants 41522110 and
41771360, the Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation
of China under Grant 2017CFA029, and the National Key
Research and Development Program of China under Grant
2016YFB0501403.
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